What a joke.. Honda Dealer...

iv-tecman

iv-tecman

iv-tecman

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12 May 2005
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Went to Honda in Northampton at the weekend, my trusty old Honda Accord 2.4 Type S is getting older bless her. 7 years I’ve had the car, and been thinking about changing for a few months…

Decided to take a Honda Accord ES GT 2.2 i-dtec 4 dr out for a spin, and rather nice car it was too…

Dealer informed me before I got into the car it would be £19500 so with my old car and the money I’ve saved up it sounded affordable so decided to take the test drive….. I had to talk ages to get some type of agreement of deal before even getting the keys, I hate taking a car for a test drive not knowing if I’m going to get a deal I can afford… Why test drive a car to fall in love with it, only to be shafted on the deal but accept it anyway as you like the car..!!!??

After the test drive, we sat down to talk again about the figures…. This is where I started to notice this dealer were interested in only one thing… Slapping as much extra onto the cost of this car as they could..

Firstly, I couldn’t find anywhere the ‘real’ figure for my trade up, it was hidden in what they called manager discount…

Secondly, they worked in a £500 charge for delivery. This included, get this –

Full tank of fuel
Mud Flaps
Interior Carpet Mats
Care Package – whatever that was..

Third they added £400 for superguard. Erm, £400 for some polish… Got lost.!! I can do this myself for next to nothing with a good quality off the shelve polish..

Then car tax, and this got the car up nearly £21000…. I finally found out they were giving me £3000 for my car, pathetic. I had £10000 saved for my new car, plus what I felt would be £4500 for my old car, £14500 leaving the rest on a small bank loan.
They then decided to offer me their own finance. Now, £10000 of my own money + £3000 from my trade up, leaving the rest on finance.

First they wanted me to take up some options scheme to keep the car for 3 years then have what they called GFV to then buy the car at the end (bugger off) was my exact response.

Then they wanted me to take it on their own finance which the refused to tell me the APR, telling me that’s not important and wanted £398 a month… Over 36 months. Again, told them to get lost.

I then before I had already decided to leave, told them they were greedy, adding nearly £1000 for stuff I don’t want or need lost them the sale anyhow.

And, to top it off, I told them –

The car needs new front tires.
I should be given a complementary tank of fuel for my business.
And offered discounts on my own mudflaps and car mats/

And then said thanks, no thanks and walked out…

Disgraceful.!! I really do hope no one really does fall these tricks... Please say the don't.. :eek:
 
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Wow, what an experience. I'm surprised the rage didn't kick in y0.

I suppose to them, if they have a chance of fleecing someone for all of those extras, they will try it. The issue being that they can lose custom from switched on punters that realise they're being lubed up.

Well done for avoiding the con.

firefilesuk said:
You have 20K and want to spend it on a honda, Spend 12 on a nice bmw and pocket the change forget about finance etc.
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Lol! It always happens, but it's not always the first post. Congrats.!
 
firefilesuk said:
You have 20K and want to spend it on a honda, Spend 12 on a nice bmw and pocket the change forget about finance etc.
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Well I don't.. I have 10K for my car fund, plus my old car and I do like honda accords.

To be honest, I'm getting married next year and buying a house (mum is paying my deposit as a gift) so thought a new car would just top it all off... gf was in favour of it, but now think I'll not bother and put the money towards my other savings for the wedding instead.. lol

and I agree. I didn't want finance, I might have considered a small bank loan..
 
I would like to say this was far from typical but sadly that would be wrong. The motor trade has its reputation for good reason and you did the right thing walking away. I've never had this happen to me, I also think they judge people (wrongly) by how they carry/present themselves so I would bare this in mind too. Be firm and clear at each stage, if you didn't want to drive the car until you had the numbers worked out you should have stuck to this and if they were unable to deliver on this not unreasonable request walked at that point.
 
To be fair, I’ve not looked at a new car for 7 years and I’m maybe rusty. One of the other reasons to get a new car is to downgrade a little to something more affordable in running costs.

My mileage is slowly creeping up each month. I now do 5000 more a year then last year. A 2.4 petrol is getting expensive, MOT is starting to get expensive, tax for the year is expensive..

So, the omissions on the 2.2 diesel comparable to my 2.4 petrol is a lot less, and its newer so no MOT for three years. And my existing car is due an MOT, tax and Service, which will cost me up to £1000 in total..

£210 for tax, £350 for a full service and then £50 for MOT and I do know the back brakes need sorting so that’s £610 already. So, time to change… Or so I thought.

Anyhow, I was ‘just’ sharp enough to notice I was about to be fleeced and walked away.

Crazy for me to hand over my car, plus my car savings for a new car that I won’t even own after 3 years….. Thinking back, I feel sick to know this does, and can happen…. And its legal.!!! ???? phew, lucky escape, and I’ll be even more prepared next time…
 
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Gaijin said:
Surely being a Honda owner, you should know what a joke the dealerships are anyway?
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True, however last car I got from the same dealer, 7 years ago we agreed to the figures, nothing extra added and I drove off with the car and a full tank of petrol on a car loan from my bank...

don't remember it being quite so bad.. could have been and I'm now older and wiser and noticed the scam this time around.... I do remember them trying to sell me superguard, but it was optional and I said no.
 
I test drove a new Civic last year, more just for a test drive and to see how much new cars really cost.

I had the same experience as the Op, they tried to add as many stupid extras as possible, no 0% finance as it was a limited edition, wouldn't tell me the APR until I agreed to buy (wth?). Also wouldn't let me have an extended test drive as it was a "performance car", its a 2.0 hatchback for god sake, not a supercar.
 
firefilesuk said:
You have 20K and want to spend it on a honda, Spend 12 on a nice bmw and pocket the change forget about finance etc.
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Congratulations.

I propose a new law (in similar vein to Godwin's Law). I shall call it FireFilesUK's Law.

Those who invoke this law should be banned from posting for 72 hours.
 
anticonscience said:
Is this a Listers dealer by any chance?
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Yes I think it was. Last time they'll ever see me again. Actually funny thing they have just called me as I was posting about it all on here.

told them to get lost. Sales guy said, that wasn't our best offer, we could do better now we know more about what you think would be a good deal..

I said "excuse me, you think the first deal wasn't good enough youselfs now? and think you can do better? Your first deal was the deal I will use as how you conduct business, and your business was to try and fleece me for as much as you could before I noticed. Now I've noticed, you want another chance to see if you can actually sell me the car correctly, without fleecing me? No, you've had your chance, other cars out there, don't call me again".

Think that was suitable not too rude IMO.
 
Same thing happened to me in Evans Halshaw. Horrible crooks if you ask me.

Dealer "Oh so the car is £5000, but what we will do for you is throw in, this, this, this and this, and were going to give you a MASSIVE 100 shiny pounds for your old car, so the grand total you pay if you buy TODAY is £7,000"

Me "Eh? See you later, thanks for the coffee."
 
They won't tell you the APR until they prop' the finance, as they usually have a group of different finance companies who they'll put your application to and come out with either the lowest APR or the best commission more likely.
 
MikeHiow said:
They won't tell you the APR until they prop' the finance, as they usually have a group of different finance companies who they'll put your application to and come out with either the lowest APR or the best commission more likely.
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Nah, not true. If they give you a finance quote or estimate they can clearly tell you on what basis the interest was calculated and what the APR was for the 'estimate' they just gave you.
 
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If you plan to use finance on a car, no matter what the source may be, you need to shop for that too as part of your purchase process and go prepared to negotiate on this as well as the car. To do anything else is foolish as this is going to be a big chunk of your real cost and you should be in a position to tell them where their finance needs to be to even be considered. Rest assured they will all try and fleece you on the finance if you don't do your homework.
 
or if they do quote you anything they will quote you the "flat rate" not the APR.

Sadly most dealers are like this.

only way to avoid getting conned is to put them straight. Tell them that it wont fly. You dont want a £500 delivery package and you dont want a $00 polish treatment.

If you make out right from the outset that that wont fly they soon get the picture in my experience. I've never taken anything like this and always managed to get stuff like roadtax / set of mats etc.. thrown in.
 
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